Social support in the healthcare setting: the role of volunteers

Abstract

The participation of volunteers in the National Health Service (NHS) has been actively promoted during recent years, particularly within community and primary healthcare services (National Health Service 1996, 1998). As a consequence, volunteers currently make a significant contribution to health and social care within the UK. Concerning this contribution, the literature often portrays the volunteers' role as one of providing social support. In the present paper, the authors attempt to explore this role in more detail, drawing on interview data from studies of two separate volunteer programmes. One of these considered the role of volunteers supporting older hospitalised patients (Davies et al. 2001), and the other was based within general practice (Faulkner 2003, 2004). The social support provided by these programmes is considered from the perspective of four broad support mechanisms described by Langford et al. (1997), namely: emotional support; informational support; appraisal support; and instrumental support. Secondary analysis examines the potential contribution of volunteers to patient well-being.

Cost-effectiveness of a health-social partnership transitional program for post-discharge medical patients

“…Faulkner & Davies [18] outlined four types of social support: instrumental support, involving the provision of tangible resources to alleviate difficulties; appraisal support, which helps individuals to evaluate the impact of situations; informational support, which provides individuals with information to deal with problems; and emotional support, which enhances self-esteem and encouragement. In this study, the nurse case managers provided all four types of support, and the volunteers backed up by the social workers provided informational and emotional support [6].…”

“…The research team has used the Omaha System in the local community and found it comprehensive and valid for use in the local context [6]. In supporting the NCM, the TVs would provide social support to the patient mainly in the emotional dimensions by expressing concerns and showing support [18]. The TVs had a resource kit on healthy home environment and available community resources if they need to provide some relevant information to the patients.…”

Social Support Networks and Expectations for Aging in Place and Moving

“…Efforts are needed to build education and information networks based on these sources. Health care professionals and social service agencies can reach a large number of community-dwelling adults and disseminate information that enables them to deal with their problems and to improve their perceptions about aging in place and moving, including whether, where, and when to seek help or move (Faulkner and Davies 2005;Schiamberg and McKinney 2003). These information sources can provide informational support in the decision-making or problemsolving process, promoting public awareness of community-based resources for coping with age-related problems.…”

Supporting hospice volunteers and caregivers through community-based participatory research

“…2010), relatively little attention has been directed to developing interventions to address the needs of different types of caregivers in hospice palliative care. The gap in understanding how to best support caregivers is particularly surprising given the ongoing calls for health‐promoting palliative care (Kelleahear 1999) and the burgeoning literature on the importance of social support for health‐care and social care in the community more generally (Faulkner & Davies 2005).…”